256 DUBOIS— JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. [April 21. 



Melter and Refiner, Booth, repaired thither in the afternoon. Ex- 

 actly what took place there we do not know. But the indications 

 are that it was a " campaign of education " and that it was a spoke 

 in the wheel of closer and fairer monetary relations, including the 

 possibility of international coinage — in which movement Assayers 

 Eckfeldt and DuBois were conspicuous promoters. The next day 

 the embassy was at the mint again and the work continued. 

 A carefully written account at the time said: 



The very intricate business connected with the currency question between 

 the United States and the Empire of Japan (the adjustment of which is one 

 of the principal objects of the embassy) and which had been theoretically 

 explained by the officers of the Treasury Department at Washington has been 

 solved to the satisfaction of the envoys by the assays performed in their pres- 

 ence at the mint. The importance and value of this very desirable result can- 

 not be overestimated and the thanks of the country are due to the officers of 

 that institution for the very skilful manner in which they have discharged the 

 duties imposed upon them by the government at Washington in connection 

 with this business. 



The tests having been concluded on the second day the envoys 

 were again formally addressed by the director, who presented to 

 them a certified copy of the results and also a full set of the current 

 United States coins handsomely cased. The censor replied, thank- 

 ing the officers of the mint for their courteous attention, expressing 

 satisfaction with the results, and promising to lay the whole matter 

 before his government so that a system of exchange could be 

 arranged betzveen the tzvo coimtries. 



A slight digression may be permitted just here to illustrate the 

 need for such adjustment of exchange if commerce was to be en- 

 couraged by the treaties. I quote from the private note book of my 

 father, then the assistant assayer of the mint. It was written the 

 next year — 1861. 



Before the Japanese Embassy started for this country a silver itzehu 

 was coined, which was intrinsically one third of the Mexican dollar. (The 

 itzebu was the monetary unit of the empire.) About the same time, for 

 Hakodadi only, a northern port where American trade chiefly centered, they 

 coined a half itzehu (so stamped on its face) whose weight was equal to 

 half a Mexican dollar (a little over in fact) and the alleged fineness the 

 same. The object of this was to meet a treaty provision which made 

 Mexican dollars interchangeable with silver itzebus, weight for weight. By 



